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Hundreds of women are being rushed to hospital after getting botched bum lifts and breast enlargements from unregulated practitioners as campaigners call for better regulation of the procedures.
The non-surgical procedure, which can legally be carried out by untrained individuals in the UK, involves injecting hyaluronic acid to change the shape of the buttocks or breasts.
Data shows that botched bum lifts have permanently disfigured women and required surgery to rectify the defective work.
One woman told The Independent she was put in a coma for four days after a liquid bum job went wrong. She said the ordeal has left her with chest and arm pain.
Another, Monique Sofroniou, an aesthetics practitioner based in London, told The Independent she had a liquid bum lift that failed around two years ago.
“I was in the worst pain of my life,” the 30-year-old recalled. “In the middle of the night after the procedure, I woke up being really sick. The area was really red and hot and then I had a really high temperature.”
She was then forced to go to the hospital where she was informed she had an infection and was placed on a drip, Ms Sofroniou added.
“I had to stay in hospital for a week,” she said. “The pain was unbearable.”
She had to go to accident and emergency around three times once back at home and ended up having an operation to have some of her dead skin removed – adding that she was in “really bad pain” for around two months.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, urged people “to avoid putting their lives at risk by having cosmetic treatments, such as bum lifts and breast augmentation, from unregulated practitioners”.
He added: “It is alarming to hear of cases of this happening, with some people ending up in hospital with serious complications. This clearly needs robust regulation – these types of procedures can have severe, life-changing, and in some cases, life-threatening consequences.”
Carolyn Harris, a Labour MP who co-chaired the all-party parliamentary group for beauty and wellbeing, warned the sector is like “the wild Wild West” and called for “stringent regulation” to be introduced to “stop this industry from exploiting vulnerable people”.
Save Face, a national register of accredited practitioners who offer non-surgical cosmetic treatments, said it has encountered women who have been permanently disfigured due to having part of their bum surgically removed.
Data from the organisation – a voluntary regulator approved by the government – reveals 507 patients have been in contact to complain about their liquid bum lifts and breast augmentation between October 2022 and July this year.
The figures, exclusively shared with The Independent, show that 98 per cent of the patients were treated by NHS services, while 91 per cent needed hospital treatment.
Almost eight in 10 patients had to go to hospital for more than 48 hours and around four in 10 required surgical intervention.
Researchers discovered just over half of the patients who reported complaints experienced sepsis, a life-threatening condition which can be difficult to spot and occurs in response to an infection. A third of patients had an abscess after having the procedure.
The Independent can also reveal:
- Of the total 507 complaints, 479 involved Brazilian bum lifts (BBL) and hip dips and 28 related to breast augmentation
- Women constituted 99 per cent of patients who made complaints
- 98 per cent of patients discovered the practitioner via social media
- Two-thirds of the treatments took place in beauty salons, while around a third were carried out in hotels or domestic places like homes
Ashton Collins, director of Save Face, said procedures are being dished out in living rooms and bedrooms as she urged the government to ban the treatments.
“These treatments are being advertised as risk-free but it is only a matter of time before somebody will die,” she added.
The patients will say they are in extreme pain in the next couple of days and the area they had the treatment will look red and inflamed – and blue, in some cases, she explained.
Ms Collins said: “And then things will get progressively worse. They start to feel ill. They start having flushes. They are almost losing consciousness.
“Thankfully, all of these people have taken themselves off to A&E because had they not done that, they definitely would have died.”
My friend has a voice note from me saying ‘I think I’m dying’. It is traumatic to listen to— Lucy
Lucy* told The Independent she nearly died after a botched liquid bum lift left her with sepsis and she was placed in an intensive care unit for four days. She was then put into a coma for four days and stayed in hospital for a month, she added.
The 53-year-old said she started feeling unwell immediately after the procedure. “My friend has a voice note from me saying ‘I think I’m dying’. It is traumatic to listen to,” she added.
A day later, she had to go to hospital in an ambulance and the paramedics told her she had sepsis, she recalled.
“They phoned ahead and had a finite amount of time to get me there,” Lucy said. The ambulance driver “thought I would be dead by the time I got to hospital. My family called pretty much immediately to say goodbye.”
She recalled experiencing “unbearable” pain in hospital and having her hip drained four times a day.
“I have zero recollection of the intensive care unit pre-coma but I can remember the coma – my dad crying, telling me to fight,” she added. “My daughter telling me she can’t lose her mum. My partner sitting with me day and night telling me what we will do if I awake.”
I was in the worst pain of my life. In the middle of the night after the procedure, I woke up being really sick. The area was really red and hot and then I had a really high temperature— Monique Sofroniou
After getting home, she was unable to walk and lost her hair, Lucy added.
“I have cognitive issues,” she said. “I can’t work. I drop things from my right hand, my feet feel weird. I have chest and arm pain. My skin is terrible and I look so aged. I have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it is “exploring options around regulatory oversight of the non-surgical cosmetics sector and will provide an update in due course”.
*Lucy’s name has been changed to protect her identity
